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EXTRAVERSION AND VARIETY‐SEEKING IN A MONOTONOUS TASK
Author(s) -
HILL A. B.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1975.tb01434.x
Subject(s) - extraversion and introversion , psychology , arousal , variety (cybernetics) , social psychology , set (abstract data type) , task (project management) , personality , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , statistics , big five personality traits , mathematics , computer science , management , economics , programming language
It is hypothesized on the basis of Eysenck's theory of extraversion that extraverts should build more variety into their performance at a monotonous task than introverts. The performance of a group of extraverts ( n = 16) and a group of introverts (n = 16) on a simple repetitive task was compared. Comparisons were made on two measures of response variety: firstly, a simple measure of number of alternations among possible responses and, secondly, a measure of variety taken from information theory … the average entropy of the set of responses made. The hypothesis was confirmed on both measures. The results are interpreted as adding further support to Eysenck's work linking differences in extraversion to differences in arousal.